Centennial history of Summit County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 30

Author: Doyle, William B., b. 1868
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1150

USA > Ohio > Summit County > Centennial history of Summit County, Ohio and representative citizens > Part 30

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In October, 1856, he started, with his sons, for the East, begging assistanee for the Kan- sas eause as he journeyed. On the 18th of February, 1857, he addressed the Massachu- setts legislature in a notable speech. He spent the winter with his family at North Elba, New York, and. in making speeches, collect- ing money for the cause and, buying arms. He already had Harper's Ferry in his mind. Autumn of 1857 found him in Iowa raising his forces and drilling them for the invasion of Virginia. Most of 1858 was spent in Kan- sas at the request of Abolition friends in the East, who were furnishing funds for the

cause. All the preparations for and the at- tack on Harper's Ferry are a matter of na- tional and not local history. Suffice it to say that on July 3, 1859, he hired a farm near Harper's Ferry, called the Kennedy Place, and assumed the name of Isaac Smith and be- gan to ship in the arms he had collected. He succeeded in concealing his little band about this farm until he was ready to strike. Early on the morning of October 16, 1859, the blow fell. With his little band of twenty-two fol- lowers he seized the United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry. On October 17 he was at- tacked, by United States forees, most of his followers were killed and he, himself, was wounded and made prisoner. He was put on trial October 26, charged with treason, con- spiracy and murder, was found guilty on No- vember 2 and executed by hanging on the gal- lows on December 2, 1859. His body was delivered to his wife at Harper's Ferry and by her taken to North Elba, where he was buried. Wendell Phillips preached the funeral sermon.

All the North looked upon John Brown as a martyr. As Christ had died to make men holy, this man had died to make them free. The Summit County boy had awakened the conscienee of the Nation. It is difficult to realize that the bright-eyed little fellow, play- ing with his Indian mates and tending his father's sheep up at Hudson, had become the central figure of our national life for the few years preceding the fall of Sumter. He did more; he had compelled the attention of the whole world. Victor Hugo published a sketch of him in Paris in 1861, which contained Hugo's own drawing of John Brown on the gallows, and which he marked Pro Christo sicut Christus-he died for Christ in Christ's own manner. Biographies of him were pub- lished in England, Germany and other Eu- ropean countries. Emerson, Thoreau, Wen- dell Phillips, Thomas Wentworth Higgin- son and other philosophers, poets and states- men were proud to acknowledge their friend- ship with the latest martyr to the cause of Eternal Freedom.

On the day of his execution Akron made

EDWARD ROWLAND SILL

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public display of her mourning. Business was entirely suspended, flags were at half- mast, bells were tolled, and in the evening memorial services were held, at which promi- nent citizens made addresses. He was Sum- mit County's first, but not her last, martyr to the cause of Human Freedom; he was only the leader of a mighty company of noble men who made willing sacrifices of their lives for the cause of their Country and Humanity. Victor Hugo was right.

EDWARD ROWLAND SILL.

Year by year the fame of this true poet is growing. It will be only a little while in the future until he is given the rank he deserves- among the foremost of America's poets. In many of his poems he attained the highest level of American art. In many respects his career offers a striking parallel to that of John Brown. He was born in the village of Wind- sor, Connecticut, April 29, 1841. This vil- lage was not far from John Brown's birth- place. and had been founded by a colony of Puritans, of whom John Brown's ancestors had been an influential part. He was not born to the poverty that was John Brown's lot. His family were well-to-do, and he re- ceived a splendid education at Yale College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1861. On the 9th of December of that year he sailed for California and landed in San Francisco March 25, 1862. The long sea voyage restored his health, which was im- paired upon his graduation. His first posi- tion was that of clerk in the postoffice at Sacramento. He kept the position only a short time, going to Folsom, California, to ac- cept a place as clerk in a bank. In July, 1862, he had determined fully to study law and en- ter upon that profession. He was then much disturbed as to the end toward which his life's activities should be directed. He writes "as Kingsley puts it. we are set down before that greatest world-problem-'Given Self. to find God .: " In 1864 he determined to enter the ministry. and by February, 1865, he was deep in his theological reading. During these ear-

ly days in California he wrote much-both prose and poetry. Early in 1867 he returned to the East and entered the Divinity School of Harvard University, where he studied for a few months. Why he quit the divinity school and relinquished the hope of the min- istry he tells in a little autobiographical let- ter written March 29, 1883, as follows: "At last I went to a Theological Seminary (in Cambridge, because there you did not have to subscribe to a creed, definitely, on the start), and thought I would try the preliminary steps, anyway, toward the ministry. But here I finally found I did not believe in the things to be preached, as churches went, as historical facts. So I desperately tried teaching." In June, 1867, he returned to Cuyahoga Falls. fully determined not to return to his theo- logical studies. He says in a letter: "There could be no pulpit for me. * * It is no sentimentalism with me-it is simply a solemn conviction that a man must speak the truth as fast and as far as he knows it-truth to him. * * Emerson could not preach, and now I understand why." He then deter- mined upon school teaching as his life work --- a singularly happy choice. "School teaching always has stood first," he wrote, significantly, at this time. He began by teaching the dis- trict school at Wadsworth, Ohio. In Septem- ber. 1869, he assumed the position of princi- pal of the High School at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, to which he had been appointed during that summer. His predecessor in that posi- tion was Vergil P. Kline, well known later to the people of Northern Ohio. The memories of his happy days in California were drawing him thither. He secured a position in the High School at Oakland, California, in 1871. In 1867, he was married to his cousin. Eliza- beth Newberry Sill, of Cuyahoga Falls. dugh ter of Hon. Elisha Noyes Sill and Elizabeth ( Newberry) Sill. No children were born to them. In 1871 he resigned his position as principal of the Cuyahoga Falls High School and, with his wife, moved to California to accept the new teaching position in Oakland. In 1874 he was offered and accepted the chair of English Literature in the University of

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California, where he taught successfully un- til 1882. His health, which had never been very rugged, failed him entirely in this year. In 1883, he returned to Cuyahoga Falls, where he died February 27, 1887. His life work was teaching, but he will be known in the years to come because of his verse. Most of it ranks very high. The critics have com- pared him with Emerson, Arnold and Tenny- son. His first volume of poems was published in 1868, and was entitled “The Hermitage

and Other Poems." In 1883 his second vol- ume, "The Venus of Milo and Other Poems," was privately printed at Berkeley, California. In 1887 Houghton, Mifflin & Company is- sued "Poems of Edward Rowland Sill"; in 1889 "The Hermitage and Later Poems," and in 1900, "Hermione and Other Poems." In 1900 these publishers also issued the "Prose of Edward Rowland Sill" and a splendid edi- tion de luxe of his complete poems.

CHAPTER XVI

MILITARY HISTORY

Revolutionary War-War of 1812-Mexican War-War of the Rebellion-Militia Or- ganizations-Spanish-American War.

Few, if any, communities have been more patriotic than Akron, and indeed all of Sum- mit County. Her sons have gone forth willingly and gladly to fight their country's battles, on many occasions not waiting to be called upon. Akron's volunteers were numer- ous and acquitted themselves manfully in 1898, and during the stirring years from 1861 to 1865 the city and the county furnished their full quota of defenders of the Union. Akron sent forth her brave and strong to the Mexican struggle of 1846, within her gates are buried men who fought in 1812, and in her soil rest even a few of those heroes who fought in 1776, and the years following, to give the nation birth. There is no chapter of local military history that were best skimmed lightly over. Glory, unselfishness and patriot- ism are written large on every page that tells the story of her soldiery.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

A few of the names of the veterans of the Revolution, who became settlers of the county and were buried in it, are preserved to us. Among them were Captain Nathaniel Bettes, buried in the family lot at Bettes' Corners; Daniel Galpin and Elijah Bryan.

WAR OF 1812.

Of soldiers of 1812 buried in the city the following may be mentioned: John C. Hart.

Ileury Spafford, James Viall, Sr., George Dunkle, John C. De La Matyr, Asa Field, Timothy Clark, Gideon Hewett, Willian Hardesty, James Mills, Andrew May and Wil- liam Roland.

MEXICAN WAR.

Akron citizens who served in the Mexican war were: Jereboam B. Creighton, Adams HIart, George Dresher, Ezra Tryon, Oliver P. Barney, Joseph Gonder, Thomas Thompson, Cornelius Way and Valmore Morris.

From the time Akron was a small village her citizens were appreciative of military glory. They did their full share of the serv- ice required of the citizen-soldiers under the early militia laws. Among the carly militia organizations to win renown were the "Sum- mit Guards," commanded by the late General Philo Chamberlain. From that time down to the present Akron has seldom been without a military company. Now her organizations are companies B and F of the Eighth Regiment, Ohio National Guard, commanded respective- ly by Captains William F. Yontz and Wil- liam E. Walkup.

CIVIL WAR.

It was in connection with the Civil War, however, that Akron achieved the larger meas- nre of her military glory. Immediately fol- owing President Lincoln's first call for troops. in 1861. two companies of volunteers were

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mustered, and, their services being accepted, were sent into the service as companies G and K, Nineteenth Regiment, O. V. I. Company G was commanded by Captain Lewis P. Buck- ley, First Lieutenant AAndrew J. Fulkerson and Second Licutenant Gilbert S. Carpenter. The officers of Company K were Captain An- drew J. Konkle, First Lieutenant Paul J. Kirby and Second Lieutenant James Nelson. A third company, formed shortly after, in re- sponse to the same call, was not required to help make up the 75,000 volunteers called for and was accordingly disbanded. When Companies G and K joined their regiment at. Columbus, May 16, there was an election of officers, Captain Buckley being promoted to the rank of major at that time. Assigned to the command of General Rosecrans, the Nine- teenth was in the battle of Rich Mountain, July 7. being especially mentioned for its good conduct and bravery. Having enlisted for only ninety days, the Nineteenth Ohio was mustered out in July, 1861, but was imme- diately reorganized, many of the Akron men remaining. Its excellent conduct so long as it remained in service is a matter of national history. Major Buckley, at the expiration of the three months' service of the original Nineteenth, was made colonel of the Twenty- ninth Regiment, O. V. I., serving with credit until physical disability forced him to leave the service in 1863. He died in Akron in 1868. Buckley Post, G. A. R., Akron's pres- ent organization of Civil War veterans, was named for him.

Of the Twenty-ninth Regiment, O. V. I., three companies, D, G and H, were composed largely of Summit County men. In 1862 the regiment, after some delays, got into active service under General Shields, and remained in the service until the close of the war. The Twenty-ninth was in the following battles, as well as many others, Antietam, Chancellors- ville. Gettysburg, and with Sherman on his march "from Atlanta to the Sea," remaining in service continuously for over four years. Akron, Middlebury and Portage contributed largely to the Twenty-ninth.

One company of the Sixty-fourth. O. V. I.,

Senator John Sherman's regiment, contained many Summit County men. This was Com- pany G. The Sixty-fourth saw much fight- ing; among the battles in which it took part were the following: Shiloh, Stone River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Siege of At- lanta, Franklin and Nashville. The 238 sur- vivors were mustered out at Victoria, Texas, December 3, 1865.

Those who remember Akron's part in the struggle of the North and the South, thrill at the name of the Sixth Ohio Battery, a sec- tion of which was made up of Akron and Summit County men. The Akron section was formed November 21, with Captain Cul- len Bradley, an army officer of experience, in command, the other two commissioned officers being O. H. P. Ayres and A. P. Baldwin. The Sixth Ohio Battery saw much hard service, some special incidents in its career being its almost continuous fighting for 120 days in the siege of Atlanta, and its mention by Gen- cral Howard for its accurate firing before Kenesaw. The battery was mustered out at Huntsville, Alabama, September 1, 1865.

In the gallant One Hundred and Fourth, O. V. I., Akron had nearly all of Company H, and was represented in several other compa- nies. The regiment was formed in August, 1862. Captain Walter B. Scott commanded Company H. His immediate subordinates were First Lieutenant Hobart Ford and Sec- ond Lieutenant Samuel F. Shaw. The One Hundred and Fourth was under fire within a month, its first assignment being to head off General Kirby Smith's advance on Cincin- nati. The first clash came near Covington, Kentucky, September 10, 1862, the Confeder- ates being repulsed. Shortly after this the regiment went on guard duty at Frankfort, Kentucky. In February, 1863, it was relieved, and in September of the same year became a part of General Burnside's command. It took the Confederate arms and stores at the sur- render at Cumberland Gap; it took an active part in the Atlanta campaign in 1864; had almost daily exchanges of the "courtesies of war" with Hood's men, near Nashville, and

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captured eleven battle flags at the battle of Frankfort. It was a part of the Army of the Potomac and was detailed to receive the sur- render of Johnston. Six hundred and forty survivors were mustered out at Camp Tay- lor, Cleveland, June 27, 1865.

The One Hundred and Fifteenth Regiment, O. V. I., like the One Hundred and Fourth, was formed at Massillon, in August, 1862, and went into the United States service in Septem- ber. Companies C, G and I contained many Summit County men. It was assigned to various responsible duties, guarding prisoners, doing provost work, and in all things acquit- ting itself well until October. 1863. when on orders it joined General Rosecrans at Chatta- nooga. Here part of the regiment was put into guerrilla warfare, and the remainder as- signed to guard duty along the line of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. In De- cember, 1864, while engaged in guarding this railroad, being stationed in block houses, Companies C, F and G were captured by the enemy. Among the prisoners were two-thirds of the Summit County men in the regiment. Many of these Summit County prisoners, upon being exchanged for Confederates, near the close of the war, were unwilling partici- pants in, and some of them victims, of the famous Sultana disaster. They were confined during their captivity at Andersonville and at. Meridian, Mississippi. April 25, 1865. the exchange took place at Vicksburg, and the Summit County men, with some 2.000 others, were packed aboard the river steamer Sultana for transportation to Cincinnati on their way home. Shortly after leaving Memphis, past midnight of April 27. as the homeward- hound soldiers either slept upon the decks or Jay awake thinking of their loved ones. and anticipating joyful reunions, one of the Sul- tana's boilers exploded, wrecking her and set- ing her afire, so that she burned to the water's edge. Half of her passengers were lost. either killed by the explosion. or drowned when they were hurled into the water. Thirty of the victims were Summit County men, though no Akronians are known to have lost their lives. The One Hundred and Fifteenth was assigned

to active and dangerous work at Murfrees- boro, where it also performed garrison and guard duty for a time; it continued in the same kind of duty until mustered out at Cleve- land at the close of the war. As provost mar- shal at Cincinnati, Captain Edward Bucking- ham, of Company I (an Akron man), was practically in command of the city during the Vallandingham affair. Lieutenant George S. Waterman, of Cincinnati, was shot and fatally wounded at Cincinnati by "Copper- heads," as one of the incidents of that af- fair.

John Morgan and Kirby Smith, rebel raiders, caused Ohio much uneasiness in 1862. Cincinnati was threatened; all available troops were stationed near the border, but even then the presence of more defenders seemed ad- visable. So Governor Tod issued a call for volunteers to defend the borders of the state, his message, dated at Columbus, September 10, 1862, calling for the transportation of "all armed men that can be raised, immediately to Cincinnati," being responded to with com- mendable promptness by citizens in all walks of life. Akron and the vicinity sent two hundred. Many of them were "fearfully and wonderfully" armed and accoutered, but all had the fighting spirit. Some placed their faith in the old-fashioned rifles, with which they had picked squirrels out of Summit County trees in Summit County gullies, and the presence of this variety of arms cansed the volunteer defenders of Cincinnati to be called "The Squirrel Hunters." When they arrived at Cincinnati. however, the enemy had retreated and the "Squirrel Hunters" returned to their homes. not having fired a shot. Dan- iel W. Storer was captain of the company from Akron and vicinity.

The Second Ohio Cavalry was recruited en- tirely in the Western Reserve. and three com- panies were largely made up of Akron men. Then as now, more sentiment attached to the cavalry branch of the service than to either artillery or infantry, and the career of the Second was watched closely from old Sum- mit. The regiment began its existence late in 1861. Colonel Charles Doubleday being in

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command. Among Akron men prominent in its affairs were George A. Purington, captain of Company A (promoted to be a colonel and afterwards entering the regular army), and Dudley Seward, who rose to be colonel of the Second before the war was over. The regi- inent joined General Porter in Missouri early in 1862, engaging in skirmish work against the guerrilla Quantrell soon after. It assisted in the capture of Fort Gibson and after about a year of active, wearing work on the border, returned east and was reorganized and re- equipped at Columbus. In 1863 it was in the pursuit and capture of Morgan, the rebel raider. In the same year it joined Rosecrans, engaging in numerous het fights, seeing the hardest kind of service and gaining death and glory quite impartially. Half the command re-enlisted January 1, 1864, and fought, first under Burnside, and then with Sheridan, be- having brilliantly throughout, and taking part under this dashing commander in the last raid of the war, which resulted in the eap- ture of Early's army. The Second was mus- tered out at Camp Chase September 11, 1865. It had marched 27,000 miles and took part in ninety-seven fights of various magnitudes.

In the First Ohio Light Artillery, formed in 1861, were two batteries composed largely of Akron and Summit County men, A, Cap- tain Charles Cotter, of Middlebury, command- ing, and D, Captain Andrew J. Konkle, of Cuyahoga Falls. The First immediately got into the fighting, first with MeCook, then with Buell in Kentucky, again with MeCook in 1863, doing fine work at Chickamauga, and, after re-enlisting as veterans, taking part in the entire Atlanta campaign. After making a record that was full of fight, it ended its service in Texas, when the war ended, and was mustered out at Cleveland, having traveled 6,000 miles and fought the enemy thirty-nine times.

Akron was represented honorably in the Fifty-eighth Regiment, O. V. I., a German regiment, organized by Colonel Valentine Bausenwein in 1861, which remained in the service till the close of the war, taking part

in some of the greatest battles fought in the four years.

The One Hundred and Seventh O. V. I., also a German regiment, was organized in 1862. It contained Akron men, among them being Captain George Billow, the well-known local undertaker. The local men were in Company I. The One Hundred and Seventh fought under General Franz Sigel, and lost 42 per cent of its men in the Gettysburg cam- paign. It was mustered out at Charleston, South Carolina, July 10, 1865. Among other fights in which it took part may be mentioned Chancellor-ville, Gettysburg, Hagerstown, Sumterville and Swift Creek.

A handful of Akron men were members of the Thirty-seventh Regiment, O. V. I., the third German regiment organized in Ohio.

In the Ninth Ohio Battery the following Akron men played their parts in the war: Robert Cahill, Adam France, Charles Gifford, Martin Heiser, F. A. Patton, Frederick Pot- ter, Caleb Williams, Thomas Williams and C. O. Rockwell.

The Sixty-seventh O. V. I. was the vehicle that started the late General A. C. Voris on his way toward the military eminence which he attained during the war. He and two other Akron men, C. W. Bucher and C. A. Lantz, were, however, the only local repre- sentatives in that famous command. When the war broke out, Hon. A. C. Voris was a representative in Ohio's General Assembly. He enlisted as a private in the Twenty-ninth Regiment, O. V. I. Soon after he received a second lieutenant's commission and left the Twenty-ninth to help form the Sixty-seventh, being eleeted lieutenant-colonel when the regi- ment was organized. In 1862 he became col- onel and entered upon a series of events which stamped him as a man of dashing courage, and paved the way to the promotions which he earned so hardly and deserved so richly. He was made a major-general in 1865, after a life of real leadership, plenty of fighting and wounds and great glory. General Voris was one of Akron's most distinguished soldiers in the Civil War.

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The One Hundred and Sixty-fourth Regi- ment, O. N. G., composed of "100 day men," contained a host of Summit County men. Its service consisted of guarding the capitol at Washington in 1864, and, although it took part in no battles, several of the local men died of disease. The One Hundred and Sixty- fourth was mustered out at Cleveland, August 27, 1864.

Akron was represented by a half-dozen sol- diers, including Captain Josiah J. Wright, in the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Regi- ment, O. V. I., organized August 10, 1863, and mustered out in March, 1864.

Several Summit County men were also in the One Hundred and Ninety-seventh Regi- ment, O. V. I., Ohio's last complete regimental contribution to the Civil War.

The service of Ulysses L. Marvin was unique, as he was probably Akron's only of- fieer of colored troops between 1861 and 1865. He enlisted in 1862 as a private in the One Hundred and Fifteenth O. V. I., was commissioned a lieutenant in the Fifth U. S. Colored Infantry in 1863, took part in the Peninsula campaign, was promoted to eap- tain during the siege of Richmond, was at the final surrender of the Confederate army at Releigh, N. C., was brevetted major at the elose of the war and made judge advocate on the staff of General Paine.

Another Akron soldier who won promotion was George T. Perkins. He was a volunteer in 1861, joining the Nineteenth Regiment, O. V. I., as a second lieutenant. In August, 1862, he enlisted for three years as a major of the One Hundred and Fifth. This regi- ment has a glorious history. Major Perkins was made a lieutenant-colonel in 1863 and colonel in 1864. He served until the end of the war.

Among other regiments besides those which have been mentioned, in which Akron's sol- diers fought during the Civil War, were the following: Forty-second O. V. I., Eighty- fourth O. V. I., One Hundred and Twenty- Fifth O. V. I., One Hundred and Eighty- eighth O. V. I., One Hundred and Seventy- seventh O. V. I., Seventy-sixth O. V. I., Sev-

enty-fifth O. V. I., Twenty-fourth O. V. I. Sixteenth O. V. I., Twenty-fifth O. V. I., One Hundred and Twenty-fifth O. V. I., and inany others.

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Centennial history of Summit County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 30

Author: Doyle, William B., b. 1868 Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Doyle, William B., b. 1868
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1150